Barron's GRE: Graduate Record Examination General Test (12th Edition) (Paperback)

by Samuel C. Brownstein (Author), Mitchel Weiner (Author), Sharon Weiner Green (Author), Stephen Hilbert (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Revised and updated to reflect the most recent GRE exams--both in their standard and computer versions--this new edition offers six model GREs with all questions answered and explained. There is also a thorough briefing on the optional computerized GRE, with advice on who should take it and how to prepare.

Product Details

• Paperback: 662 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series Inc.; 12th edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812097246
• ISBN-13: 978-0812097245
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 7.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,425,777 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time and money, October 28, 1999

By	Jason (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Prepare for the Graduate Record Examination General Test (Barron's GRE (W/CD)) (Paperback)

This book was a waste of money. It is written for the paper test, which is not given anymore. There are a few modifications for the CAT, but it is obvious the authors did not put much time into modifying the book for the CAT. The computer program contains many careless errors. In fact, the analytical section had omitted words and parts of clues. In places, the questions were unanswerable because of these omissions. The quantitative section had many errors, and even gave incorrect answers for some of the graph questions. This book may cause you to do worse on the GRE's. I bought this book along with Peterson's cracking the GRE and the ETS "Big Book". The Peterson's book contains some useful hints on the analytical section, but I strongly recommend the ETS Big Book and the ETS PowerPrep software.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Has the Info, but Needs Better Presentation, October 19, 2002

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Barron's How to Prepare for the Gre: Graduate Record Examination (Barron's How to Prepare for the Gre Graduate Record Examination) (Paperback)

This Barron's guide to the GRE probably has equivalent information and study tips to the other GRE guides that are available, making it an acceptable guide. This especially applies to the Verbal Ability section and the diagnostic and model tests. The 3500-word dictionary of brainiac words is also useful but takes forever to get through if you tackle it from a study angle. The biggest problem with this guide is the Quantitative (math) Ability section, in which complex solutions are difficult to read and sometimes contain errors and typos. Take this example: "x+.25x=1.25x=2000=>y=2000/.75=2666.67." Now imagine that crammed into the middle of a paragraph containing various fonts and typefaces - and this example doesn't even contain square roots, exponents, fractions, or other hard to read symbols. Add to that some flat-out errors (see some of the other reviews here for examples) and the Quantitative section presents some difficulties. The Analytical Ability section falters in some places as it tries to explain how you should "infer" or "deduce" answers. I found myself just plain disagreeing with some of the answers in the Analytical section, with no explanation as to why I should agree with the guide's answer. One final humbug in this edition is the 2-page synopsis on the new Analytical Writing portion of the test, which is hidden at the end of the book after about 140 pages of model test information.

This guide will surely help you practice adequately for the GRE, but the presentation leaves a little to be desired. Also, you can buy this book with the optional CD-ROM, which gives tips on the current computer-based version of the test. If you have at least competent computer skills, the CD-ROM is unnecessary, so skip it and save some money.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars THINK TWICE BEFORE BUYING THIS BOOK!!!, October 12, 1999

By	patrick ([e-mail]) (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Prepare for the GRE (Paperback)

Buyer Beware!!! This book proclaims that its CD-ROM "presents an almost limitless number of different tests." This is clearly misleading. In actuality, the CD-ROM presents an almost limitless number of different tests with THE SAME QUESTIONS!!! After a mere two rounds with the verbal section, I started encountering questions I'd seen the day before (-this includes entire reading comprehension passages and questions). If you're interested in trying to replicate the actual testing situation (i.e. encountering questions you've never seen before, much less within the previous 24 hours), then this book is clearly a waist of time. If anyone finds a book with a CD-ROM that does NOT repete questions within the first couple of tests, then please email me.